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Cameroonian striker Albert Ebossé, who played for Algerian football club JS Kabylie, died on 23 Aug. after being hit by a projectile thrown from the stands, following his team’s 2-1 home defeat by USM Alger on the second day of the Algerian football championship.

Ebossé was taken to a hospital in Tizi Ouzou, Kabylie (110 km east of Algiers), where he later died of the head injury.
He had scored the only goal for his team, whose home defeat provoked the anger of JS Kabylie’s supporters. They started throwing projectiles from Tizi Ouzou stadium’s stands as the players were returning to the changing rooms. One of them fatally hit the Cameroonian player.

The 24-year-old's death was a shock to those close to him and to the footballing world and prompted some to question the security of Algeria's stadiums.

His JSK Kabylie teammate Kamel Yelsi described the tragic event to football news site Goal.com:

He was actually hit by two projectiles: the first on his wrist and the second on the back of his neck. Albert had no chance of avoiding it; he was rushed straight to hospital, where they did all they could. I don’t know what to say. Let’s just say it is an Algerian problem. In many of the stadiums, the supporters get so worked up, it’s frightening. It turns into a kind of hatred. When the insults are flying, you can almost ignore them. But the projectiles they throw are not just stones, they are boulders.

Ebossé was born in Douala on 6 Oct., 1989. When he arrived at JS Kabylie in July 2013, Ebossé shared his first impressions of the welcome he was given by the town in an interview with JSK TV. He said at the time that:

Ebossé dreamed of wearing the [Cameroonian national football team] Indomitable Lions jersey. Human stupidity ended those dreams forever this Saturday 23 August 2014 on a football pitch – the place where he had achieved so much since arriving at Kabylie.

Dear footballing friends, it could have been your head instead of Ebossé’s. Who will speak on behalf of this young man? Who will defend his memory? Who in African international football will dare to have the intelligence to say no to this stupidity? Instead of fighting for bonuses, those scraps that more powerful people are happy to give you, stand up for your most priceless possession: your dignity and the dignity of people like you. What if one day you refused to play indefinitely, until FIFA adopted binding rules, including suspension of any team whose supporters displayed racist behaviour.

According to Algerian professional football league president Mahfoud Kerbadj, the Ministry of the Interior has ordered a judicial enquiry into this death, .

As a tribute to the young player, here is a video compilation of highlights from his career: